Month: June 2016

It’s rainy season in Bangalore. This means it’s pretty cold here and flu is in every house. It is very difficult to keep my kid away from water and put on warm clothes for him. So every now and then he is down with a runny nose.

Here’s what I do to keep him on his feet and reduce his crankiness:

Keep him well hydrated: Nobody likes to drink cold and plain water in cold. The same is true with babies. So, I first boil some water, drop in a few palm candies and let it cool down, before serving the sweet water to my kid. Not only does it appeal to his taste buds, but also helps prevent congestion. Palm candy also helps the body to get rid of a cough easily.

Serve soups: When suffering from cold and cough the appetite to eat solid or regular food automatically goes down. However, it is very important to keep up the nutrient levels to help the body fight infections. To make up for regular food I serve him with fruity yoghurts and homemade clear soups. Some of the soups that you can easily serve your baby or kid: Pumpkin-Dal-Veg Soup, Chicken Clear Soup, Dal-ka-Paani and Vegetable-Sevai Soup.

Warm oil massage: Who doesn’t like a warm oil massage? Kids love them too. When your baby has a runny nose, which is also considered stage one of any cold, you can use this oil concoction to warm up your baby or kid, especially the palms of the hand and feet. Take a little of the concoction and rub vigorously to generate heat. It helps and works like a magic.

Oil Concoction: Take some mustard oil, little Kalonji and 1-2 garlic pods. Heat them together in an aluminum or steel bowl, until the Kalonji, and garlic sizzle. Allow it to cool down to a comfortable temperature. Now apply the oil and massage.

For a peaceful night’s sleep: Do the oil massage before dinner. Dab away the excess oil, if any, with a cotton cloth to avoid sweating. Take 2-3 drops of Zinda Tilismath on a piece of cotton cloth and let your baby inhale.

Coffee is not native to India. They are originally from Brazil. In India, they came through the Arab route.

In the 17th century, Baba Budan, a Sufi saint, brought seven coffee beans from Yemen to Chikkamagaluru. He went to Arab to perform Hajj and on his way back crossed Yemen. There he tasted coffee and wanted to grow them in India. However, the Yemen administration was strict about exporting any raw beans outside the country, as they wanted to have a monopoly over the trade. Baba Budan somehow managed to smuggle out the beans and sow them in the Baba Budan range. Luckily for him, Chikkamagaluru and India, the seeds germinated and grew into healthy coffee plants.

Apart from Chikkamagaluru, two other districts grow coffee in India — Coorg and Sakleshpur.

In Chikkamagaluru, two types of coffee plants are grown – Arabica and Robusta. Both have distinctive characteristics that make them commercially in demand globally. From a farming perspective, it is more viable for planters to grow them both to optimize their RoI.

Places of Interest

Mullayanagiri – This is the highest peak in Karnataka. There is a temple at the top and the view is splendid. The peak Mullayanagiri got its name from tapasvi Mulappa Swamy, who meditated there in a cave. The temple is built on his samadhi. The other temple is Sitalayanagiri, which is 2 kms before reaching the top of Mullayanagiri. It is an old temple and is a favorite spot of the Karnataka film making industry.

The temple walls on top of Mullayangiri and the surrounding view taken in panorama mode

There are two routes to the top — one is the concrete road via Sitalayanagiri temple and goes all the way up to the foothill of the final stretch to the peak. From there you have to climb up stairs to reach the top. The climb is not a difficult one as the steps are low to moderately high; the other road is for trekkers and starts at Sarpadhari.

Dattagiri / Baba Budangiri — Baba Budan range or the Chandra Drona Range consists of some of the highest peaks of Karnataka or the entire South India. Mullayanagiri is one of them. At a distance of approximately 24 kms from Mullayangiri is the Baba Budan / Lord Dattatreya temple or Dargah in a cave. It is equally revered by both Hindus and Muslims.

There are a couple of waterfalls in the area: Manikyadhara and Jhari. It is advisable to visit them on weekdays to avoid the rush of the local crowd. We could not see either, as it was a Sunday and the places were jam-packed with people. We even got caught in a traffic jam. Can you believe it? Traffic jam in the hills of Chikkamagaluru.

Belur-Halebidu — These are the sites of two temples built by the Hoysala Kingdom and are known for their beautiful architecture and carvings on rocks. The carvings are finer and more detailed than what today’s craftsmen can do with wood. Each stone mural is different in its mudra. Variations can be seen in the form of minute details such as a change in eye-expression.

Of the two, Belur is a complete temple where rituals are performed and festivals are celebrated. Halebidu has been declared as a heritage site and no Pooja or rituals are performed here.

Coffee plantation — Coffee plantation tours are not a commonplace in India, unlike tea plantation tours. We were lucky to get a tour as one of my colleagues, who has a coffee estate in Chikkamagaluru was in town at the same time and was kind enough to show us around the whole estate. He even introduced us to the whole coffee-making process, the varieties of coffee, and other interesting facts about growing coffee in India. And the best part of this whole things was we went around the whole estate in his Willy’s jeep. A very old one, but o boy! what a jeep.

While these are some of the places that we managed to visit over our short weekend trips, Chikkamagaluru district per se is huge, spread over 7,201 Km2. There are many other places to visit that cannot be covered all at a time. You need to plan separately for them. Here’s a link that lists them all.

Food Venture

Town Canteen — The place in Chikkamagaluru to have masala dosa. Nothing can beat it. You have once, you will want to have again and again, is all that I can say about this place. So when in Chikkamagaluru go, DO NOT miss out on this place. It is one of the oldest places in Chikkamagaluru town.

Homestays — Most homestays in Chikkamagaluru offer good food. The place where we stayed (or stay whenever we go) is Atithi Homestay. Their cook Krishna is awesome. Call it breakfast, snacks or chicken recipes, he has mastered them all.

I wish I had some pictures to share, but unfortunately I am always too busy eating and enjoying. May be next time. 🙂

In a digital world, technology disruptions are affecting the lives of consumers and businesses equally. The control, however, has shifted into the hands of consumers. It is they who decide what stays (and what goes away). Enterprises should listen to what customers want and innovate. Design thinking can help.

Listen to what your customers want

The world is changing fast. Technology is disrupting the ways consumers and businesses think and interact. The influence of social media is growing. All this is empowering customers to take control of their choices, likes, and preferences. Customers expect their favorite brands to understand their needs. They want brands to provide them with solutions based on this understanding. And they are very clear about it.

Well, if you ask me, none of the first three. For if it were, products like Segway, the two-wheeled transportation device, Google Glass and Amazon FirePhone would not have failed. They were all great products – good designs, great concepts, disruptive innovations – but, they still failed in the market. There is one thing common among these three products though – they did not solve a customer issue or respond to a user need.

As Clayton Christensen, the innovation guru, said that for a successful product in the market it is important for the product to solve a customers’ need. Anything else, and you will perish sooner or later – even if the product is predicted or promoted as a game changer or as a disruptive innovation.

User-centered innovations

By understanding what customers want and developing an idea or product around it can help organizations develop user-centered innovations. However, more often than not, the development process fails to sustain the focus on the user-problem.

An organization by adopting the design-centric culture inherits a set of principles that enables its people to have a common platform and language to discuss ideas. It also enables them to bring the feasible ideas to life.

As Tim Brown, IDEO, says, “Design thinking is a system that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business can convert into consumer value and market opportunity.”

Here’s how Design Thinking works

There are many definitions of Design Thinking available on the Internet. Irrespective of the multiple explanations offered by different thinkers and writers, at the core Design Thinking is all about 3 Principles:

Observation, recognition and empathy for users

Ideation and innovation

Iteration for constant improvements

Design thinking is primarily about a disciplined approach to understand your target customers and their needs. Followed by an empathetic approach to framing and reframing the problem statement. Then facilitate and promote active participations of diverse team of stakeholders vertically and horizontally across an organization for brainstorming of ideas. Ideas that are not design-centric alone, but ideas that attempt at solving the user-issue defined in the problem statement. This is very important – to maintain the course of the thinking process. It is also important to keep in mind that shortlisted ideas should be feasible technologically and economically. And lastly, but not in the least, do not stop there. Continue the process based on customers’ feedbacks this time and improve the product, solution or the model.

Applying Design Thinking

One of the best applications of Design Thinking in medical design is the area of prosthetics. Some of the oldest prosthetics were made of wooden or metal blocks. However, in the late 16th century French Army surgeon designed one of the most advanced prosthetic of that time. This prosthetic allowed the flexibility to bend the knee, and therefore increased mobility. Since then continuous effort to improve prosthetics has been on due to many war casualties. With recent technological disruptions, medical devices companies gathering more user information to understand their needs better. They are collaborating with users and other stakeholders in the medical world to develop sophisticated prosthetics that can imitate the functionality and mobility of a biological limb. Touch Bionics is one such company that manufactures hand prosthetics with advanced gesture control and manipulations. It allows the user greater mobility and increased strength.

Similar user-centered innovations will soon be visible in other areas of medical technology as well.